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The veteran shoe shiner has filed to run for Florida governor in 2018 without any party affiliation. He has spent 30 years shining the shoes of Florida power brokers, along Monroe Street, in Adams Street bars, and at the airport.

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Veteran shoe shiner announces campaign for governor

“The Speaker’s office, Senate President’s, the Governor’s, I’ve been in all of those places,” Knox said while working on a pair of wing tips on the steps of the state Capitol.

“I know what goes on in this building,” he added, confiding he has been in the room when deals have been cut.

Knox said for the past 10 years the movers and shakers of Florida politics have kept telling him what great ideas he has.

"You know what happened to those great ideas? They threw them in the trash can," he said while buffing a mirror-like shine into black leather. "It didn't fit into their program."

So he filed to run for governor.

Knox immersed himself in Florida politics at the dawn of Gov. Bob Martinez’s administration back in the late 80s. He put up $5 for a brush and shoe polish. Back then his beat was the one-mile strip between Tallahassee’s historic Whataburger in Midtown and the Capitol as he shined shoes for customers.

Knox hasn't stopped walking. In addition to customers, he now is on the look out for the 13,000 signatures needed to qualify for a spot on the November 2018 ballot. His path to the Governor's Mansion and a corner office in the Capitol begins next week in Pensacola. He intends to shine shoes and collect signatures all the way to Key West.

“Once I talk to people they understand. I’ll give them the papers they’ll collect the signatures and send them to me,” the 63-year-old said. “I’ve raised eight children. Three have college degrees and a fourth is starting so I must know something.”

Knox is an entrepreneur. He nurtured that 1988 $5 investment into a shoe shine enterprise that now includes the Capitol complex, Jacksonville International Airport, and Sarasota. He cemented a relationship with politicians and lobbyists once he walked through the doors of the famed politico watering hole Clyde’s & Costello’s.

“That was my big break,” he confessed. “When they let me in there that was all I needed.”

One day in Clyde’s while shining a lobbyist’s shoes, the man’s beeper went off. It sparked an idea.

“I spent $305 on a beeper and some business cards, “Beep Tony for a shoeshine,” he said.

Knox wants to teach people how to work to get them off public assistance. It’s a message he’s been preaching for some time. He once was just one of two fathers to show up for parent day at a Havana elementary school. A July 1999 Tallahassee Democrat article quoted him urging fathers to be more involved in their children’s lives.

“I could have a 1,000 shoe shine stands in the state of Florida, but I can’t find a thousand people to go to work,” Knox explained Wednesday. “I’m going to be a working governor. I’m going to help you grow and give you confidence so you can go out and work.”